I think there is real honor to be had for those who admit they've made mistakes in the past.
Yesterday the LDS Church commemorated 30 years since male members of African descent have been allowed to receive the priesthood. Interestingly enough, there were a number of men of African decent who received the priesthood under the hands of Joseph Smith, a couple of which even served as members of the seventy, one of the higher councils of the Church.
From what I understand, the idea that blacks could not receive this, came from Brigham Young, who from what I understand was somewhat of a racist bigot and would appear (at least in my humble opinion) to get these feelings mixed up with what he thought was revelation from God.
It's interesting that the Blacks not receiving the priesthood is a significant hurdle for some to cross when deciding to join the Church. While the Church's stance has changed, they still teach that it wasn't right in the Lords time for these men to receive it. I am also ashamed to admit that members of my close family still believe this 'doctrine' was a result of some amount of unfaithfulness of these spirits in a previous life.
Rather than admit they were wrong (which I have no doubt they were), the Church continues to claim it was revelation from God - The same God they teach is unchanging and the same yesterday, today and forever. OK!
Why is it that the biggest stumbling blocks are things which men have come up with to cover their own moral failings? I would go into the absolute travesty that became the 'doctrine' of polygamy, but perhaps that is a topic for another day.
Of course this inability to admit mistakes is also the reason we're still over in Iraq. I support the troops, but I am convinced there is a better way to honor them, than sending far too many good men over to the desert to die, especially when it's just to save face of the Bush Administration, and administration which will no doubt go down in history as one of the worst - And wasn't this the guy that was shouting his mouth off about the Clinton Depression? Thanks George, I think of you every time I have to fill my car with gas!
The problem when an organization claims to speak for God, is that when they get it wrong, they either can't admit error, or will need to say in so many words "it wasn't really doctrine."
ReplyDeleteBrigham's racism is just one of the troubles any Mormon faces when they read about his opinions that he believed were divine. The Adam God doctrine he preached meant so much to him that he had real personal animosity with Orson Pratt whom disagreed with Brigham on this issue.
Yep!! Yesterday's Sunday School lesson which I was supposed to teach was supposed to be about how a theocracy led by an inspired prophet was the perfect form of government.
ReplyDeleteI gave the definition of each form of government and then kind of let the kids take the discussion themselves - Interestingly enough, they picked up the idea behind theocracies pretty quickly and immediately linked them to the problems in the middle east. Hmmmm!
The reading seemed to support the idea that one man with absolute authority was a bad thing - It was about Alma the Younger setting up the judges.
I purposely did not teach the main point of the lesson that blind obedience to a prophet was a good thing, which seems to be the common theme in the the materials this year, and one which my class will not be hearing from me.